For the first time in Quebec electoral history, there will be a televised English-language leaders’ debate. A date has been set for Monday, Sept. 17 — two weeks before Quebecers head to the polls on Oct. 1. The leaders of all four parties with seats in the National Assembly will take part in the 90-minute debate.

http://qcgn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/CBCNews_web-without-News-1.png200200Catheline Moreauhttp://qcgn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/qcgn-pan-trans-white.pngCatheline Moreau2018-05-02 15:38:392018-05-17 16:08:16An English debate? Would that be great? Or something you'd hate?

People in the riding of Westmount-Saint-Louis are making plans should their MNA bow out of the next election: they want an Anglophone to run for the Liberals.

Current MNA Jacques Chagnon has hinted that he might not run again this fall.

If that’s the case, voters and Anglo rights groups say they want to see more representation in the National Assembly, where of 125 members, only three are Anglos.

“We do have to have somebody who is connected with the community,” said Geoffrey Chambers, vice-president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, which supports English groups in the community. “There are a variety of points of view in any party in any caucus and sometimes the people in the room don’t have as much information about the English community that they should have had.”

Concordia University has been awarded a $350,000 grant from the Quebec government’s secretariat for anglophone relations aimed at supporting “the vitality of Quebec’s English-speaking communities through research projects … conferences and outreach activities that connect educators, artists, community organizations and the provincial government.”

The funding will go to the university’s Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN), which “provides opportunities to promote the understanding and vitality of Quebec’s English-language minority communities through research, training, knowledge mobilization, networking and outreach.”

The provincial government is promising to give five English groups $950,000 over the next two years.

Kathleen Weil, the minister responsible for Relations with English-Speaking Quebecers, made the announcement Monday at Concordia University.

She said the funding comes out of the Anglophone Secretariat’s budget, and will go toward expanding school programs, improving tourism, and more.

The English Language Arts Network, the Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders, and the other groups said they were happy with the funding increase, but acknowledged a certain level of cynicism after years of being taken for granted by political parties in Quebec.

Community organizations are starting to see some of the money budgeted for Quebec’s new Anglophone Affairs Secretariat with the minister responsible Kathleen Weil promising more to come.

Weil announced $950,000 over two years will go towards five groups that help support English-speaking communities in the province, specifically for projects to deal with issues raised during recent public consultations:

Re: “Anglo panel sounds familiar” (Letters, April 13) In his letter, Robert Libman characterizes as unnecessary the revamped regulation announced by Health Minister Gaétan Barrette to oversee the creation of access plans that guarantee the delivery of health and social services in English to our community.

As a former MNA, Libman should know that rights obtained by Alliance Quebec in negotiations with the government in 1986 only guarantee services where plans are in place that actually define those services.

As a result of massive reforms in the health-care system, many of those plans are either out of date or out of service. Over the past few years, we have received frequent complaints about the lack of access to services in English, a recurring problem throughout the province.

QCGN Vice-President was interviewed on Breakfast Television, to discuss revamped regulations that will ensure English-speaking Quebecers have a voice in the accessibility and quality of health and social services in their own language.